Various aircraft communication systems are known in the art, most of which being restricted to communication between a ground station and an aircraft or a one-to-one communication between aircrafts. With the development of advanced aircraft communication systems, there is an urgent need to allow multiple aircrafts, such as a fleet of aircrafts, to be able to be linked by a communication network. Some advanced communication systems do allow multi-point communication between aircrafts. However, because communication on standard communication channels/protocols is strictly regulated and non-compliant communication messages are not permitted, dedicated communication channels operating on non-standard frequencies and/or implemented on non-standard protocols are used by these systems. These systems have several disadvantages which makes their deployment costly and troublesome. First, the frequencies used by communication systems are strictly controlled by governmental agencies and thus the use of non-standard frequencies is dependent upon acquiring of the rights to use these frequencies. Further, deployment of aircrafts in the airspace of different countries makes the acquisition of these authorizations difficult, time-consuming and costly. Also, use of non-standard communication protocols requires the use of dedicated communication equipment, which considerably increases not only the costs of such systems, but also the testing/implementing time and also the weight of the aircraft. Furthermore, such additional equipment unnecessarily increases the complexity of the navigation system of the aircraft.
Special requirements for the communication system are set by aircrafts designed to provide tactical/training functionalities, such as simulation of additional navigation systems, weapon capabilities, radar displays and electronic warfare of a fighter jet for training purposes. These requirements become even more complex in training scenarios involving a fleet of such training aircrafts.